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DECEMBER OUTLOOK — WHAT TO WATCH FOR AS 2013 DRAWS TO A CLOSE: With only a few legislative days left on the Hill, little mirth circulating between lawmakers, and the usual list of end-of-the-year items Congress may or may not tackle, there’s not likely to be major movement on the big energy issues before we ring in the New Year. Of course, not everything happens on the Hill. Here’s a look at what to keep an eye on.

Keystone XL: The State Department won’t say when it will release the final Keystone XL environmental review. While the final EIS is far from the last step before a decision is made, observers have been on the edge of their seats for months. And with the southern leg of the pipeline — from Cushing, Okla., to refiners on the Gulf Cost — expected to be moving up to 700,000 barrels of oil per day by year’s end, Keystone once again presents a prime opportunity for lawmakers to talk energy issues with constituents over the winter break.

Transboundary agreement: One item Congress may feel more urgency to address soon: legislation implementing the 2012 U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Hydrocarbons Agreement, which would let an offshore drilling deal move forward. If not approved by Congress before Jan. 17, Mexico could move forward on leasing without using deepwater drilling safety procedures laid out in the agreement. Each chamber has already approved bills regarding the agreement, but the House passed a version that also includes language shielding oil and gas companies from some Dodd-Frank disclosure requirements — a no-go in the Senate. House leaders have been mum about whether they will take up the Senate version, while the American Petroleum Institute says Congress should pass the bill, even without the Dodd-Frank provision.

EPA regulations: Two major EPA rules — the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, and Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for power plants — get court time this month. The Supreme Court will take a look at CSAPR, which an appeals court struck down in a controversial 2-1 ruling, on Dec. 10. And on the same day three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will review two MATS cases; opponents of the rule are hoping the court will once again say EPA has gone too far.

Nominees: Now that the Senate has dumped the filibuster for most presidential nominees, several long-embattled names could move through the upper chamber. Among them: Kenneth Kopocis to head EPA’s water office and Thomas Burke to be EPA’s assistant administrator for research and development. Both of them almost certainly would have been filibustered because of opposition from Republicans. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is also likely to address a number of nominees, including Chris Smith and Steven Croley, both for DOE positions.

Nuclear waste: Last month, Senate energy committee Chairman Ron Wyden said that he hoped to have the panel take up the nuclear waste bill he crafted with Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Dianne Feinstein and Lamar Alexander sometime next month. But given the tight, brief December work schedule, observers aren’t holding their breath and expect to see more action early next year. The bill may also have to be tweaked now that the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has instructed DOE to zero out the nuclear waste fee it charges to utilities, an account that the legislation would siphon money from. Paradoxically, however, the court ruling likely gives even more urgency to the bill.

PTC: The renewable energy production tax credit is set to expire once again on Dec. 31, alongside numerous other renewable energy tax provisions. While a lapse would throw a wrench into the wind industry’s growth, changes to the qualifying language mean wind projects coming online as late as 2015 can probably still qualify for the 10-year credit. The industry is also hoping to get more stable treatment in Congress’s broader tax reform efforts.

Shaheen-Portman: This energy efficiency bill — which got bumped from the floor back in September and hasn’t made its way back onto the schedule — is a long shot for passage before the calendar changes. But Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), one of the sponsors, says she is still hopeful to snag some floor time soon. The bill still faces problems with finalizing amendments and potentially overcoming a filibuster.

THE $38 BILLION NUCLEAR WASTE FIASCO: Doing nothing often has a cost — and when it comes to storing the nation’s nuclear waste, the price is $38 billion and rising. That’s just the low-ball estimate for how much taxpayers will wind up spending because of the government’s decades of dithering about how to handle the radioactive leftovers sitting at dozens of sites in 38 states. The final price will be higher unless the government starts collecting the waste by 2020, which almost nobody who tracks the issue expects. Darius Dixon has the must-read story here: http://politi.co/1bacUNO

GREEN TEA: Can conservatives and environmentalists get along again? Activists around the country — in Appalachia, Georgia and elsewhere — are giving it a try. It’s not yet a broad national trend, and may not be enough to begin dampening Washington’s bitter left-right split over President Barack Obama’s environmental policies. But some activists — particularly outside the Beltway — see potential for the kinds of coalitions that used to get big things done. Darren Goode has the story: http://politico.pro/1cLpDJK

MACFARLANE IN KOREA, JAPAN: NRC Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane is traveling this week to South Korea to meet with nuclear regulators there. The U.S. and Korea earlier this year extended an agreement barring the nation from producing its own nuclear fuel and providing technology from the U.S. instead, a move designed to prevent further nuclear proliferation. After that, Macfarlane is off to Japan to meet with regulators and Caroline Kennedy, the U.S.'s newly confirmed ambassador. She will also keynote a spent fuel conference.

EPA KICKS OFF 2014 RFS COMMENT PERIOD: EPA has kicked off a 60-day comment period on its proposed 2014 renewable fuel standard requirements after publishing a Federal Register notice on Friday. EPA’s proposal would for the first time scale back requirements for the total amount of biofuels that must be blended into the nation’s gasoline supply, as well as the requirement for advanced biofuels. The proposal lowers the mandate from the 2013 required volume, 16.55 billion gallons, to 15.2 billion gallons, where it was set in 2012. The agency is taking comment on a range of 15 billion to 15.52 billon gallons in its proposal. FR: http://1.usa.gov/1adG9iz

— EPA also started a 60-day comment period on an RFS waiver request from industry groups with a Federal Register notice: http://1.usa.gov/1dJStz1

IN TODAY’S FEDERAL REGISTER: The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is releasing NEPA-related environmental review documents for proposed Gulf of Mexico oil and gas activities from the third quarter: http://1.usa.gov/18fUKKF

IER REPORT: MANY STATES NET PAYERS ON PTC: Thirty states and the District of Columbia are net losers when it comes to the wind production tax credit, according to an analysis out this morning from the anti-PTC Institute for Energy Research. The paper assumed all the wind that came online in the last decade took advantage of the PTC, which supplies a tax credit of 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour of wind power produced, and is a one-year “snapshot” using 2012 production data. The thirty states — including California and much of the Southeast and Northwest — lost out because they have little or no wind capacity, IER says. “Federal wind subsidies … create an unfair redistribution of wealth across state lines that enriches wind companies in select ‘net taker’ states at the expense of taxpayers in other states.” More: http://bit.ly/Io94dE

Welfare states: AEA’s paper is just the latest attack on the PTC as opponents ramp up efforts to lobby Congress against any sort of extension (the credit expires at the end of this year, though projects coming online through at least 2015 will likely still qualify) — and the groups aren’t pulling any punches. The American Energy Alliance, IER’s sister organization, has a website (http://bit.ly/1cfSes9) linking to the report and urging readers to “End the Wind Welfare!” And today AEA will launch what a spokesman called "a series of aggressive ad campaigns" going after the PTC, with print and online ads in the Washington and national markets, including an ad in this morning Washington Examiner: http://bit.ly/14As2Td

PRO-LNG EXPORT GROUPS URGE ACTION: Act on LNG and the American Council for Capital Formation have a rebuttal to recent arguments made by the Industrial Energy Consumers of America against allowing more LNG exports. In a letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, the pro-export groups say exports will "support a price level that will stimulate continued development of gas," reduce the trade deficit and "enhance" the U.S.'s geopolitical position. Read: http://politico.pro/Izp7or

HAS SOMEONE BEEN PEEKING AT ME’S CHRISTMAS LIST? If you’re on a Cabinet member’s gift list, don’t read this item. Administration officials stopped by local shops this weekend for Small Business Saturday, all your favorites included. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy went to Longfellow Books in Portland, Me., along with acting Small Business Administration chief Jeanne Hulit. Press-Herald: http://bit.ly/ImIyBf.

Tweets or it didn’t happen: Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell took to Twitter to share their adventures. Moniz bought a baguette at Clear Flour Bread bakery in Brookline, Mass. (http://bit.ly/1b95Fc8) and pumped gas at Shimon’s Service Station — at $3.45 a gallon, according to the sign (http://bit.ly/1eED0fT). And Jewell tweeted that she was shopping with Washington State’s Squaxin Island Tribe: http://bit.ly/1cKG6hb

HEADLINE OF THE DAY: “Japanese engineers plan to turn the moon into a giant solar panel station” http://ind.pn/IuqS6e

IF YOU LIKE THE PRO ENERGY TWITTER HUB: POLITICO has launched a one-of-a-kind resource for tracking the technology policy conversation. Sponsored by NCTA, the “Technology Tweet Hub” is an online destination featuring the most influential handles in technology, as compiled by POLITICO’s technology team. The hub uses Twitter’s new custom timeline technology to filter tweets more specifically focused on conversations that matter to those involved with technology policy. Follow the tweets here: http://politi.co/1b8IHSz